SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card could store around 30 hours of HD video and will go on sale for $800

A shopper poses with a SanDisk memory card beside a Samsung camera in Hong Kong.Reuters

US flash memory card manufacturer SanDisk has created an SD card which can hold 512GB of data – the largest capacity ever released.

The SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card, which is the size of a postage stamp, has a higher capacity than many PC hard drives. The card could potentially hold around 30 hours of high-definition video, and will go on sale for $800 (£490).

In addition to its unprecedented level of storage, the SD card also comes with a lifetime warranty and is temperature proof, waterproof and X-ray proof.

It also comes with a data recovery download offer, which allows accidentally deleted images to be recovered.

SanDisk's Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card comes with 512GB and will go on sale for $800.SanDisk

The card is aimed at filmmakers shooting in the high-quality 4K film format, and experts believe the SD cards could eventually hold up to two terabytes of data (2,000GB).

The 4K format has four times the resolution of high-definition video, and requires massive amounts of file storage.

A single minute of 4K shooting typically takes around 5GB of storage space, depending on compression.

Dinesh Bahal, vice president of product marketing at SanDisk, said: "As an industry leader, SanDisk continues to push the boundaries of technology to provide customers with the innovative, reliable, high-performance solutions they have come to expect from us.

"4K Ultra HD is an example of a technology that is pushing us to develop new storage solutions capable of handling massive file sizes.

"The 512GB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card is a tremendous advancement that enables professionals to reliably store more content on a single card than ever before."